Aero looked up, startled by the sound of Cody’s laughter. He didn’t seem to laugh a lot nowadays, especially not since Professor Turner had been taking special interest in him. Always making Cody go to extra training sessions in order to enable him to excel even further.

Aero wasn’t even top in the one class he should be - gun training. He spent too much of the time seeing how high he could build a bullet tower, it was all about the art of balance...that and not giving a shit.

Quite frankly, Aero had been a little surprised he had been chosen to go on this mission at all, it sounded important...the kind where fuckups couldn’t happen.

He anxiously remembered Professor Turner’s warning, we need a win.

Aero had been sat in Handler Itagawa’s office earlier that day after the meeting with Turner, fidgeting absently with the cuff of his sleeve.

"Aero?" Itagawa had asked with a slight sigh in her voice. She had been his Handler since birth and was fully aware of his...quirks.

"Yup?" Aero had blinked, looking up, a frayed thread still in his mouth.

"Aero, did you hear what I said?"

Aero had blinked again and tried to think of a polite way to say 'no'. Itagawa merely sighed louder this time and leaned forwards in her chair.

"As you know, we are sending a unit of Dolls to Galaxy Sierra Zulu as a scouting party. You will be one of them, meaning tomorrow you will need to be partnered with a Feral."

Aero had raised his eyebrows silently.

"I got your quarterly test results back Aero," Itagawa had continued, "You scored exactly 50%, placing you in the lower half of the class."

Aero had shrugged at her.

"The thing I couldn't fail to notice however, was that you only answered exactly 50% of the questions."

Aero had bit his lip in a satisfied smile, "What a coincidence," he had replied, keeping his voice as nonchalant as possible.

"As for your weaponry testing, well that was excellent as always and put you on a par with your dorm-mate Cody."

Aero had made a shooting gesture with his fingers and smirked at Itagawa.

"Would you like me to read your report card from the weapons trainer?"

"Sure," Aero had shrugged again.

"He wrote one word. Deadly."

Aero had jerked his head up to her, frowning, "Did he seriously write that? That's totally cheesy."

"For a Doll it's the highest praise one could give," Itagawa had raised an eyebrow. "It also tells us everything we need to know, which is that you are perfectly capable of handling this mission and the responsibility it brings."

Aero had numbly taken the briefing documents from Itagawa before walking back to the dormitory he shared with Cody, Sienna and Tyron.

His heart had been thumping in his chest and he had felt slightly nauseous. The last thing he wanted was Sienna realising he was nervous about the mission though, so he had plastered on the biggest smile he could muster and had swung the door open whilst breaking into a startlingly loud rendition of "How much is that doggy in the window?"

Back in the present, Aero grinned as Cody sheepishly held up his uniform tunic, now sporting an iron-shaped burn stain.

"It’s cool," Aero called over to his friend. "Now I'll get a fresh new one for the mission."

"Maybe your Feral will be able to iron?" Sienna suggested as Aero pulled a face at her.

"Please -I doubt those animals even know how to wash themselves," he retorted dismissively.

"Well we'll see tomorrow won't we?" Tyron winked at Aero before walking over to his bunk. Aero focused his eyes on the tight curve of Tyron's ass as he watched him go. He looked up a moment later and grinned guiltily as he noticed Cody shaking his head at him.